Ply | Three
Yardage | 280.4 m
WPI | Fingering
Fibre | Merino-Silk
Tool | Serenity Wheel [5.5:1 ratio]

Spin spin spin…that’s all I can say. LOL!

Sometimes I really run out of things to say about my handspun yarns. I guess it’s due to the fact that I go through one fiber after another and then a longggg pause during the spinning process that I forget whatever it is that I’ve been facing with that particular project.

But one thing is for sure – spinning regularly helps to keep things even! So now that that is out of the way, it’s back to the wheel for me!

Ply | Single
Yardage | 461.8 m
WPI | Lace
Fibre | 75/25 BFL-Silk
Tool | Serenity Wheel [5.5:1 ratio]

My very first singles that are not overspun OR underspun thanks to adjustments to the tension and the threading (I can’t go at it as if it were spin-on-treadmills)!

I love how the colours came out – exactly as I envisioned it to be – but more importantly, I love love love the fact that it just took me two nights to spin this up! AHAHAHAHA! Now in terms of yardage, I would have liked to have something more substantial to work with but the 450 over meters will be good for a small-medium sized lace shawl. I guess I just need to find the right pattern now.

But yes, singles are amazing things to spin up! *grin*

Ply | Three
Yardage | 236.22 m
WPI | Thin fingering
Fibre | SW Merino-Tencel
Tool | Serenity Wheel [5.5:1 ratio]

I had initially intended for this to be available at the store for socks or even a nice smallish shawl/scarf but due to some “accident” with my spinning, I ended up losing quite a bit of yardage on this while plying it. Gah. So in the end, the resulting yardage was too little for anything else but one skein projects.

Note to self – 50-50 merino-tencel blends can be fiddly to spin, especially for someone who has been out of the spinning shape for a longggg time! Over nine months, mind you, and with all the running around, Jack Georges reviews and a baby…gah. I am actually quite surprised that I managed to squeeze in some spinning time before the babysitter showed up!

But hey, at least I managed to get this done. The resulting yarn is utterly yummy and shiny; it’s just a pity that the yardage is soooo little. Hai.

Ply | Three
Yardage | 330.7 m
WPI | NA (Fingering)
Fibre | 50/50 alpaca/superwash merino
Tool | Serenity Wheel [5.5:1 ratio]

This is actually one of my own self-blends – I didn’t want to spin up alpaca on its own so I settled for blending it with some unddyed superwash merino. The result was some candy-striped and heathered yarn that is subtle in colour but still very yummy!

I’m still undecided about putting this up for sale because it wasn’t done as well as I would have liked it and if I have my doubts about it, chances are, it won’t see the store shelves any time soon. Still, no problem. I can always use this for some ankle socks…or something. *grin*

In the meantime, I’m awfully tempted to rebrand my store but that would involve an overhaul on EVERYTHING, from name cards to site banners, names, labels, etc. Talk about finding cheap online printing services! So nah, I guess the name is for keeps for real. XD

I’m definitely on a spinning roll now! It’s been a week or so since I last churned out my previous plied yarn – pictures to come soon – and I’m onto my third braid of fiber now! Talk about getting relaxed AND worked out at the same time – all that feet action beats the heck out of a Lipofuze!

Above is the result of the second braid that I had worked on and finished yesterday, both spinning into singles and then plying into a nice fingering weight yarn. This is one of my handdyed fibers and somehow I couldn’t bear to part with it so I kept it. Of course, the fact that it was the only merino-silk braid I order in the initial stages of starting off my shop helped. *grins* The sheen and colour transition is just amazing so much so that I’m quite tempted to make this part of my shop’s fiber inventory!

I wonder though if I’d be able to continue spinning at this rate once I start work…or work on my other hobbies like knitting and sewing, which has taken a backseat. The price of having to juggle so many hobbies on top of caring for a home, husband and baby. I have about a week to go before my first day and I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. It’s still quite mixed considering that I don’t really have a suitable wardrobe in place and I foresee my plate getting even more full by the minute.

Still, one thing is for sure – I’m looking forward to the day I move into our new place and incorporate some gym/pool laps into my exercise routine. At the moment, I’ve been active but not as active as I would like to be. Still have those pregnancy kilos to get rid of and while many people have assured me that going back to work helps, I can’t be sure. Yes, yours truly here is one of the few women out there who can put on weight during times of stress. Hai.

But that aside, I’m glad to announce. My spinning days are here again!

Before we moved to Singapore, I remember going through my shop stock and putting some aside so that I could continue the trade after Eva was born. But things got sidetracked (a lot, I’d say) when she came. Suddenly I was not just swamped with running errands and housechores but tackling a newborn and later an infant. Despite my crazy schedule and breastfeeding, I wasn’t on a quick weight loss diet at all.

So my undyed fiber and yarns sat in its box, waiting to be unpacked. Until today…

I finally got my arse moving and spent some time sorting the store stash before deciding on dyeing up about 900gms of undyed superwash merino. It was a little tough trying to get started, especially with the colour combinations and mixtures but once that was settled, I discovered that dyeing can be quite fun although time-consuming and utterly tiring. It made me feel like a little kid again, playing with all those colours and imagining things again after months of routine and schedules with a child.

As the fibers sit on the clothes dryer, water dripping from its dyed ends, I’m awfully tempted to open up my handdyed fiber and yarn store again. But that’s just the keyword “awfully tempted”. I don’t know if I’ll have the stamina to do this regularly once I start work. Hm. We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I’m happy – my dyeing mojo is back!!!

It’s nice to get back my spinning mojo after months of the wheel lying dormant. I even managed to get it plied while Eva sat in her Bumbo seat snacking away on a teething rusk. Of course occasionally, she would pause, stare and wonder what it is exactly that I’m doing but most of the time, she’s just contented to gum/gnaw away on the rusk while shaking a leg (or two) in the Bumbo.

Anyway, back to the spinning. I must say…picking up this project brings back memories of how I used to spin when I was pregnant. It was relaxing and well, I got my legs the much needed exercise too! I was amaze then at how people traditionally made yarn and the work that went into making sweaters and other fibre-related dress items and I’m still amazed.

Now here in Singapore, it’s not a very common hobby and during the day, the apartment door is open (but gated) so neighbours who walk pass can actually glimpse into the house if they wish. Needless to say, the sight of a woman in front of a wheel churning out lord-knows-what is intriguing and I had a couple of stares. Still, it’s all harmless curiosity.

This skein of yarn is much less than what I could normally churn out – I don’t really know what is the weight as I’m handblending from two separate batch of fibres as I go along but I reckon it’s about 100 gms or so. I’ll have to wash and set it first before I actually weigh it so more on the yarn itself in another entry. In the meantime, I’m off to pick up on an old spinning project and work on a couple of spa cover assignments (did I mention that it’s been ages since I’ve been to a spa? More on that another time).

Yes, I broke out my spinning wheel and decided to put an end to my spinning hiatus! So far, it’s been great for my legs – the workout is just fab (move aside, joint health supplements coz old-fashioned exercise at the wheel is all I need!). Now, I didn’t quite start this recently; it was something that had been sitting on my wheel for a while and I decided I had enough of just looking at it but not doing anything about it!

It’s a unique project in the sense that it’s hand-blended – I merge two separate fibres as I’m spinning them – and I’m also working with one white and one coloured fibre. I’m hoping to get a heathered yarn when I’m done plying it as from experience, candy cane coloured singles when plied lend a heathered look to the yarn. With any luck, I should be done with this in a few days, the latest a couple of weeks, depending on my schedule. After that, I’ll probably put it up on the Etsy store or hang on to it as a gift or an addition to my stash.

What are the two fibres, you may ask. Well, one is pure alpaca and handdyed by moi, the other is undyed superwash merino. I’m liking the texture so far and am quite excited to see how this all turns out!